Temporal binding within and across events

Abstract

Remembering the order in which events occur is a fundamental component of episodic memory. However, the neural mechanisms supporting serial recall remain unclear. Behaviorally, serial recall is greater for information encountered within the same event compared to across event boundaries, raising the possibility that contextual stability may modulate the cognitive and neural processes supporting serial encoding. In the present study, we used fMRI during the encoding of consecutive face and object stimuli to elucidate the neural encoding signatures supporting subsequent serial recall behavior both within and across events. We found that univariate BOLD activation in both the middle hippocampus and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) was associated with subsequent serial recall of items that occur across event boundaries. By contrast, successful serial encoding within events was associated with increased functional connectivity between the hippocampus and ventromedial PFC, but not with univariate activation in these or other regions. These findings build on evidence implicating hippocampal and PFC processes in encoding temporal aspects of memory. They further suggest that these encoding processes are influenced by whether binding occurs within a stable context or bridges two adjacent but distinct events.

Perceptual Boundaries Cause Mnemonic Trade-Offs Between Local Boundary Processing and Across-Trial Associative Binding

“…These results add to a growing body of literature characterizing the influence of event segmentation on long-term memory (Baldassano et al, 2017;Boltz, 1992;Chen et al, 2016;Davachi & DuBrow, 2015;Dubrow & Davachi, 2013;DuBrow & Davachi, 2016;Ezzyat & Davachi, 2011Heusser, Poeppel, Ezzyat, & Davachi, 2016;Newtson & Engquist, 1976;Schwan & Garsoffky, 2004;Zacks, Speer, Vettel, & Jacoby, 2006).…”

Learning Naturalistic Temporal Structure in the Posterior Medial Network

“…The increased coupling between the hippocampus and other regions in the posterior medial network over repetitions of temporally structured, scrambled clips contributes to the literature on time and sequence coding in hippocampus (e.g., DuBrow and Davachi, 2014, 2016; Hsieh et al, 2014; MacDonald et al, 2011; Mankin et al, 2012; Manns et al, 2007; Pastalkova et al, 2008; see Davachi and DuBrow, 2015; Eichenbaum, 2013; Ranganath and Hsieh, 2015) and studies showing a role for the hippocampus in memory for intact movies (e.g., Chen et al, 2017; Lehn et al, 2009; Gelbard-Sagiv et al, 2008). This is also consistent with studies of statistical learning that have found learning-related changes in hippocampal activity (Bornstein & Daw, 2013; Hindy et al, 2016; Schapiro et al, 2012; Turk-Browne et al, 2009, 2010).…”

Constructing Experience: Event Models from Perception to Action

“…Consistent with this view, Baldassano and colleagues [54] found that shifts in cortical patterns in both sets of lateral cortical regions were associated with phasic increases in the HPC. Other models suggest that communication between the HPC and the PFC (specifically, the ventrolateral PFC) may also be important for within-event binding: In a sequential picture memory paradigm, Dubrow and Davachi [106] found that interactions between HPC and ventrolateral PFC predicted within-event sequential memory.…”